Post Removed

Reflections on Red Shoes

Recently a friend and colleague, Christy Thomas, wrote a very thoughtful post entitled “Red High Heels and Annual Conference.”  She offered both practical and theological reasons why she would not be joining other clergywomen in wearing red shoes on the first Monday of Annual Conference.  While I have great respect for Christy and her reasons, I would like to offer the reasons I will  be wearing my new red shoes. 

Now I will say, practically speaking, I am not terribly good at wearing high heels.  These are about 5-inches; the highest I have ever had.  I have been practicing walking in them. I can’t wear such shoes all the time, or I would indeed wind up in the orthopedic ward.  However, I can still manage it for a day or two at a time. But why go to the trouble, the expense and (let’s be honest) the pain?

BECAUSE I CAN AND IT’S FUN

When I was a child in elementary school, I had to wear orthopedic shoes.  I hated them! Large and ugly, they only came in the colors of gray, brown and black, and provided lots of opportunities for being teased. Even when I was older and could wear shoes that were somewhat more normal, my feet were so narrow that the really cute, fashionable shoes never fit.  Not until after I had children and my feet widened was I able to wear shoes in colors other than black, white, brown and navy.  Now, call me shallow, but I have fun wearing cute shoes.  I don’t have many pairs of them; most of my shoes are still black (goes with the robe) and sensible.  But occasionally, I like to splurge and wear something fashionable and fun.  These new red shoes are fashionable and fun and I am still young and healthy enough to wear them. So I will.

But I would not do this just because it is fun, if I was theologically opposed to what the red shoes represent.  So I have my theological reasons as well.

BECAUSE I WANT TO BE SEEN AND HEARD

I actually agree to some extent with Christy, that one way to understand our role in the pulpit is that the pastor should try to disappear behind the glory of God.  But there is another piece to being a pastor who is a woman: invisible is particularly difficult for me.  My voice is different; and I mean that both literally and metaphorically.  I have a higher pitched voice than most men; I have had some people tell me that their children paid more attention (at least at first) because of the novelty of the way my voice sounds.  But I also have a different voice as a preacher who is a woman.   I see things from a slightly different point of view.  I use examples that come out of my experience as a woman.  I talk about giving birth and mothering children.  And frankly, I can’t get away from the fact that people see me as a woman who preaches, even though I would prefer to be seen as a preacher who happens to be a woman.  And maybe that is not as bad as I think.  I want girls to know that a woman is just as capable of being a preacher as a man.  I can’t do that by being an “invisible pastor.”   

STANDING FIRM ON PRECARIOUS FOOTING

I always feel like I am going to fall when I wear these shoes.  Every step is a “step in faith” that I won’t fall and break my ankle.  So, like Jeremiah, I am going to wear these red shoes as a sign-act. Because God did not call me to be silent and safe.  God called me to speak with my woman’s voice. Sometimes God calls me to speak an unpopular word, take precarious stands, and step out in faith. I stand with my clergywomen colleagues because we are different. I continue to walk beside my clergywomen friends because we may need to hold each other up and pick each other up. And I am willing to stand out in the crowd because we have not come as far as we had hoped as women in ministry.  The Bishop made that abundantly clear at the meeting we had of lead women pastors. 

 

So, someone needs to say that women don’t need protection, we need support.  Someone needs to say that we really can fight our own battles, but we can’t fight alone.  We need to remind others and one another that the best way to convince people that women can be pastors is to preach Jesus and be an effective leader.  Competence convinces.  If we make disciples of Jesus Christ, those disciples will not care that we are female.  In my experience, when people are hurting because their mom has just died of cancer or their child was drowned in a neighbor’s pool or their teenager has just tried to commit suicide, they really don’t care that I am female.  They just want a pastor.  

If we are stepping out in faith, we are always going to feel like we are balancing on 5-inch heels; like we might fall if we take a false step. But that is our reality. 

THE CONSEQUENCES

Will we lose members because people are opposed to women in the pulpit? Oh, yes. Will we lose big givers for the same reason? Most definitely.  Does the church, does the conference, have the guts to see it through?  Don’t know.

I do know this, however.  The truly “unchurched” couldn’t care less that the pastor is a female or what kind of shoes she is wearing.  People who don’t consider the bible the “Word of God” are not going to be influenced by I Timothy 2:11-14.  (Does this even need to be said?) If our goal is to keep our good members from being stolen by nondenominational churches, then, okay, we may have a problem in putting a woman in a church.  But if our goal really is to reach people with the message of Jesus Christ, to build the kingdom, then we all may have to make some sacrifices.  We may have to step out in faith – conference cabinets and bishops included and appoint someone besides perfect young, white male pastors with lovely wives and 2.5 kids.  (For the NTCUM’s among you, check out how many of these appointments have been made to large churches recently.) We need all the people we can get – people of color, and women in red heels included – to preach the gospel and share the love of God. And if that causes a drop in giving at a church, if a pastor is threatened with losing salary or not paying apportionments because of gender or race or whatever, then other pastors need to step up to the plate and make sure that salary gets paid, even if it is out of their own 6 figure salary.  Now that’s a radical idea! If we are all committed to the kingdom, we need to make sure the kingdom doesn’t get cheated out of servants.

This is a lot to get from red shoes.  But for me the red shoes represent all of this.  However, I do have one more comment to make.  Christy is right that many women don’t even have shoes.  I can’t solve all the problems of shoes in the world and not buying/wearing my shoes because some don’t have them is a little like being told to eat all the food on my plate because of all the “starving children in China.”  But I can do this: in honor of clergywomen and my red shoes, I will donate a pair of professional shoes in my size to an organization such as Dress for Success (which helps women dress professionally for job interviews).  And I will wear my red shoes to Annual Conference, even though (or maybe because) every step I take in them is a step in faith.

Thoughts, comments, shoe stories?

What Have We Come To?

Several days ago a clergy colleague announced that he was “honored to be a part of” the annual “Winter SolstiCelebration” that takes place in Dallas each year.  When I first saw the post on Facebook, I was a little taken aback, because I was under the impression that the Winter Solstice was a pagan festival, but I thought that perhaps this was simply a secular name for a winter program.  When I investigated, I discovered that the “Winter SolstiCelebration” was indeed a celebration of a pagan festival.  So I want to ask this question: When did it become okay for a United Methodist Clergyperson to take part in a pagan worship celebration?

I find it deeply troubling that a United Methodist Clergyperson would think that this is appropriate.  The only possible reason to be involved would be as a Christian presence, but the two songs that he is singing have no references to God, much less Christ.  The song that is being sung at the “energy climax” of this pagan festival says “I can find peace within the very heart of a song.”  I thought that as Christians we found peace in Jesus – see John 14:27. 

The theme of the Winter SolstiCelebration this year is “Our Human Journey” and asks the following questions:

Can we guide our evolving humanity?

What are our choices for the future?

Are we doomed to endless war, social injustice and environmental degradation?

Or, is it our epic destiny to live in peace with prosperity for all?

Join the journey to the
future we choose
at Winter SolstiCelebration.

The Bible is pretty specific about the problems of choosing our own future and about what happens when we try to guide our lives without reference to God (and by God I mean the God we know in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit).  At the end of the book of Judges, the people of God are in a horrible mess.  They have been involved in murder, rape, and fratricide; they have degenerated to the point where they no longer resemble the image of the holy God of Israel.  And the reason?  As it says in the last verse of Judges  (Jdg 21:25) “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.”  The New Testament has something to say about that as well in Romans:

Romans 1:21-25, 28-32  “ . . . though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.  22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools;  23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.  24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves,  25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  . . .  28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.  29 They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,  30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,  31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  32 They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die-- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.  

Far from solving the problems of war, social injustice and environmental degradation, this focus on making our own choices and guiding our own humanity, particularly in the context of “alternative spirituality” will lead to a further descent into misery.

In contrast, Jesus offers a vision of the reign of God that offers us hope and joy.  We learn from Jesus to pray for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”  We learn from Paul that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  How can we improve on this by “guiding our evolving humanity?”

The Winter SolstiCelebration is clearly and unapologetically a spiritual event that includes pagan, Wiccan, and Shamanic traditions.  I might be uncomfortable with one of my parishioners participating in this festival, but I would accept it and engage them in conversation about how these traditions differed from Christianity.  However as United Methodist Clergy we have covenanted to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the Bible.  We do not have the freedom to engage in alternative religious practices, even as a musician.  We must be unapologetically and exclusively Christian and we can’t separate parts of our life.

I believe it is wrong for United Methodist Clergy to participate in pagan festivals.  I am writing this post because I think that silence implicitly condones such behavior.  I want to be clear that I do not and that I think we need to stand firm in our faith.  I call on other United Methodist Clergy to join me in saying no to alternative spirituality and to return to the gospel .  Paul said it well: “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.  2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 

 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

In Christ,

Martha

Check out the following links and decide for yourself if this is an appropriate venue for a UM Clergyperson.

http://www.moonlady.com/sols/solsmedia.html

http://www.earthrhythms.org/solstice/prior_sols.html